Baked Spaghetti Squash & Chicken Parmesana

You may be tired of me extolling the virtues of our local farmer’s markets here in the Fox River valley of Wisconsin. I am completely unapologetic. This past summer we blissfully spent almost every Saturday meandering through the stands of produce, the artisan soaps and crafts, the scads of bright and fresh cut flowers and the Saturday morning crowd collectively rejoicing in the luxury of a leisurely-spent weekend morning. We have a few keep-overs from one of the season’s final markets and this evening I threw something together with one of the three spaghetti squash that have been claiming our dining room buffet as a temporary home.

It’s always fun for me to try something new from the kitchen, and it’s really fun when the outcome is delicious. Add health and ease to the mix and it’s a bona fide winner in my book.

This was a meal of convenience, of sorts. It started with a quart bag of freshly made vegetable broth that, sometime in the middle of the night, decided to inconveniently leak. All of it. From the top shelf of our side-by-side freezer. This frozen mess initiated an hour long impromptu cleaning of our freezer which led to the discovery of some marinated chicken breast – that’s when the dinner wheels started to spin inside my head.

Typically when making anything with marinara, we almost always make our own. Happily, I can’t remember the last time I opened a can of processed sauce. When we don’t have fresh tomatoes (which is often), we usually heat up a can of diced ones, throw in some tomato paste, garlic, wine, seasoning and voilà. It’s rare that we have no diced tomatoes in our pantry and today was one of those times. That’s when I spotted the case of canned tomato sauce that resulted in a trip to Costco sometime ago. As you can guess from reading this post and seeing the photos – one thing led to another with this meal. Quite nicely. We have a couple of spaghetti squashes remaining from our cherished farmer’s market, I can only hope they end up in something as delicious as this autumn dish. Speaking of autumn, I hope yours is going nicely. -Dan

Comments

Farmers markets are the best! I totally miss them living in Asia– although I did buy the most amazing organic dragon fruit I’ve ever had in my life at the market here. But the markets here are not nice like Farmer’s markets in the States– smelly! And just functional. Nothign fun!

G’day Looks great Dan Thanks for coming and sharing at our #SayGdayParty Please make sure to revisit if you haven’t already and say G’day to the hosts and another person at the party Pinned all of your submissions! Cheers! Joanne﻿ What’s On The List?﻿ Sharing is Caring!

First of all I hope your cut is getting better! The meal you prepared is packed with flavors and it is a true family meal. I wish I was your neighbor! Thank you also for featuring my waffles it was such a lovely surprise! Have a great week my friend and watch out of the knifes lol!

Hey Dan, I have been wanting to make a recipe using spaghetti squash and this dish looks wonderful. Spaghetti squash is not found too often in my city, but I’m keeping my eyes open. Thanks for sharing!

As I have said before Dan and Scott, I so enjoy reading your blog. It is the one blog I look forward to most and savor the script and the photos and then read through the recipe. This is a wonderful use of spaghetti squash.